Madonna -- Celebrity Green Report
Written By Katherine Sansom
May 22, 2007
Madonna burst onto the pop music scene in 1983, at 25 years old, and has been making hit records ever since. She has released ten albums so far, sold more than 120 million records and appeared in twenty-one movies. Her success is unparalleled, and she is a hero and an icon to many young female performers.
Madonna’s work has always been noted for its political and religious themes but, in recent years, Madonna has begun using her vast wealth and public profile to raise awareness of these issues and make a difference to the lives of poor children around the world. She has also spoken out on environmentalist issues, and called for government action on climate change.
In addition to these humanitarian efforts, Madonna has shown concern for environmentalist and animal welfare issues. She visited New York’s Hunter College to lecture the students on these topics and, on the advice of her friend Stella McCartney, banned pheasant hunting on her Ashcombe estate last year.
Madonna has also swapped her gas-guzzling cars for the first luxury, hydrogen-powered sedan: the BMW Hydrogen 7. The stylish sedan was a runner-up in the World Green Car awards earlier this year and has already caught the eye of a number of other celebrities, including Brad Pitt.
The ‘Live Earth’ concerts, planned for July this year, are to include performances by 150 of the world’s top musicians across seven continents and nine concerts, with profits going towards a global effort to avert climate change.
Madonna is amongst the seventeen performers that have already been announced for the London concert, but she is the only performer (so far) to have written a song especially for the occasion!
‘Hey You’ was recorded by Madonna and Pharrell Williams, and Microsoft has already pledged to donate $0.25 for each of the first 1,000,000 downloads to environmentalist charity ‘Alliance for Climate Protection’.
Madonna has demonstrated further commitment to ‘Live Earth’ by politely declining to perform at the Princess Diana Memorial – an event to mark the ten-year anniversary of the Princess’s death – because it falls the week prior to ‘Live Earth’ and would interfere with rehearsal commitments!
Madonna has urged fans to see Al Gore’s award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, and has stated that she would back him if he were to stand for the American Presidency.
Madonna’s record company, Warner Music Group, have also turned green! The entertainment group has announced that all its CD and DVD packaging will now be made using only post-consumer fibers, and will no longer contain any mercury or fibers made from the products of endangered forests. The company has also committed to reducing its carbon footprint and implementing a waste reduction and recycling program.
Resources:
http://www.bmwworld.com/hydrogen/stragegy.htm
www.liveearth.org/
http://www.wmg.com/news/
